Part of high quality is being able to find visitor information easily when planning a day out. Making sure visitors can find information about your attraction and services is therefore vital if they are to understand how their own needs can be met. This is a matter of quality. 

An Access Statement is a written, clear and accurate, and above all honest, description of your current facilities and services available. The purpose of the Statement is to enable a potential visitor to make an informed decision as to whether your attraction meets their particular access needs. An Access Statement can enhance the quality of service you offer to all of your visitors and can be a valuable marketing tool for your business.

VisitBritain is offering guidance to all visitor attractions to help prepare and write an Access Statement. You may already be familiar with writing an access statement, and may have a member of staff responsible for access issues. Alternatively, this may be something new to you. In either case VisitBritain have provided documents, templates and advice to give you some new ideas and help guide you through this process.

The guide offers: -

• Help in understanding access statements; what it is, why you need one, who it is intended for, how to write one, and where to publish it. 
• A standard template for all tourism businesses (not just attractions), which you can use to help structure your Access Statement with suggestions of items to include. 
• Sample Access Statements with examples based on a small and a medium sized attraction. 
• Further contacts – for any extra help regarding accessibility you may need (PDF file 45KB).

• For more information about making attractions more accessible please click here for the guide produced by the DRC.  

Don’t forget accessibility is not just about providing access for people in wheelchairs. Many of those who have rights under the Disability Discrimination Act do not choose to use the term ‘disabled’ about themselves. Indeed, under DDA, the law protects people of all ages with mobility and sensory impairments, learning disabilities, mental health issues and progressive conditions, such as Cancer and AIDS, from discrimination. It can cover people with heart disease, diabetes, depression, schizophrenia, dyslexia, epilepsy and Down’s syndrome. By providing an Access Statement you can help all visitors who have specific access requirements.

We recommend that before using the template you may find it helpful to have a look at a sample Access Statement to give you an idea of what your own Statement may look like. Within the template there are many suggested items to consider. You are not required to cover everything that is contained in the ‘suggested things to consider and describe’ for each section. These are merely suggestions and you must use your own judgment as to what information your visitors need to know about your attraction. Remember, keep your statement simple, clear and concise.

If you have any comments about the information, documents and template provided or require further advice, please email QAD@visitbritain.org. 

For word documents of the text in the template please click here